India retain third spot in ICC T20 Rankings

Dubai: India held onto their third spot after the annual update of the ICC Twenty20 Rankings was announced on Thursday. Sri Lanka have retained their position as the number one ranked team in the list.

The annual update was released just two days before Pakistan take on defending ICC World Twenty20 champions West Indies in a two-match series, in Kingstown, St Vincent.

At the June ICC board meeting during the Annual Conference week in London, the ICC board agreed to change the T20I rankings period from three years to four years. The ICC Board also decided that the annual update to the Test, ODI and T20I rankings should now take place on May 1, rather than August 1, to better align with the current international calendar.

This change has been incorporated in the latest update and has been backdated to May 1, 2013. The updated table now reflects all T20I matches completed after August 1, 2010. All T20I matches played until the start of May 2014 will be added to this table.

There are no ranking changes as a result of this annual update and most countries' ratings change by no more than a point or two.

Fourteen out of the 16 countries with T20I status are ranked, with Afghanistan and Canada yet to play the required eight rated matches. Afghanistan need to play one more and Canada two more prior to May 2014 in order to join the rankings.

Meanwhile, Pakistan have an opportunity to move to the second place in the ICC T20I rankings table if they win both the matches against West Indies in the upcoming series. Fourth-ranked Pakistan are currently on 118 ratings points but could potentially move up to second place with 124 ratings points, thereby swapping places with second-placed West Indies with 120 ratings points.

On the other hand, if West Indies win both the matches, they could gain five ratings points to finish at 132, reducing the gap with number-one ranked Sri Lanka to just two ratings points.